political perspectives from Joni Hudson-Reynolds, an African-American Mom

“Do you want to buy some food stamps?”

I went to the store this afternoon and as I approached the door a man asked me if I wanted to buy some food stamps. My answer was no and as I walked with my daughter I said “isn’t it ironic that this man is trying to sell something to me that the government gave to him.” (the government is Us) It’s not just ironic it made me mad. Don’t get me wrong there are people that need government assistance to exist and that’s not the issue. The issue is that this guy obviously was trying to pick up quick cash and that is simply not right. Since traditional stamps don’t exist anymore I wonder was he going to go with me as I shopped and then use his Independence Card? If I had gone along with the scheme there would be two people breaking the law and I was not going to be one of the two.

With private charity, abuse is almost nonexistent. If someone comes to a charitable organization and asks for help, the private organization can quickly hone in on the people who really need the help and people out to game them. We need to re institute a few things: Work in exchange for assistance, a sense of shame for gaming the system, welfare fraud checks to verify that people on the dole are not abusing the system, and replacing welfare with a process to lift people from poverty to self-sufficency within a short period of time. As President Clinton said, “We need to offer a hand out, not a handout.”

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